A vet will check out the dogs Thursday morning and get them ready to be adopted in a couple of weeks, but shelter workers believe the same people may have done this before.

Humane Society Executive Director Marylee Gorham-Waterman said at about 10 p.m. Tuesday, surveillance video caught a Subaru dumping a metal crate and a wooden box on the driveway of the center, each filled with four puppies.

“One crate really shouldn't be used to transport anything living or breathing,” Gorham-Waterman said. “I mean, it's just a cobbled-together collection of wooden slats, probably nailed shut, and four puppies squashed in there.”

Gorham-Waterman said the puppies were covered in urine, feces and black flies.

“The water ran brown from the excrement that was in their coats and encrusted, but we saw that their paw pads were scalded, and that's from standing in urine,” she said.

Shelter workers bathed the dogs, fed them and gave them TLC, although some are hesitant around people.

Gorham-Waterman said 44 days ago, five puppies were left in the same place, in a crate, early in the morning.

Those puppies look very similar to the ones left outside Tuesday night, she added.

“So we are thinking that there is perhaps someone out there who is overrun with dogs, needs help, doesn't know what to do,” she said. “But, you know, dumping animals at night really isn't appropriate.”